Health & Fitness
Northbrook Boy Takes Magic Show to Israel, Cheers Up Sick Children at Hadassah Hospital
EIN KEREM, JERUSALEM, ISRAEL -- When Jacob David “Jakey” Korol of Northbrook, Illinois was thinking of a mitzvah project for his upcoming Bar Mitzvah he knew he wanted to do something in Israel.
Jakey’s grandmothers were born in Israel and America. Grandma Zelda Korol from Deerfield, Illinois is a life member of Hadassah and belongs to the Ketura Group of the Hadassah Chicago-North Shore Chapter while Great Grandma Yehudit Bassrawy is a volunteer in Hadassah Hospital in Ein Kerem, Jerusalem.
Dozens of children, some in wheelchairs, came for the family’s magic show on Sunday, Dec. 22 at Hadassah Hospital which included card tricks, disappearing water, and even a black rabbit in a hat.
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“I feel good making sick kids feel better,” said Jakey, who will also read the Torah at Robinson’s Arch near the Kotel on December 26, 2013.
The Korol family passion is magic and everyone had a task. At Sunday’s show at Hadassah Hospital, Jakey’s dad Jack Korol, whose day job is running the Leon Korol Company which sells surplus and promotional housewares and toys, was chief magician. Brothers Sammy, 11, and Liam 8, helped prepare balloon animals for the Israeli kids, for which they’d been practicing for three months. Mom, Naomi Korol, passed out stuffed animals to the sick children. Grandmother Sara Eisenstein, also born in Israel, translated from English and a helpful mother in the audience translated into Arabic.
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But most of the tricks needed little translation as “Abracadabra!” brought laughter and applause from the children.
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ABOUT US: Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America, is the largest women's Zionist Jewish membership organization in the United States, and was founded in 1912. At 330,000 members, associates, and supporters strong, Hadassah is now in its second century, growing our commitment to innovative and life-changing medical care and research, women's empowerment, education, advocacy, philanthropy and building Jewish identity – in Israel, America and around the world. Hadassah Chicago-North Shore Chapter is one of the largest in the nation, representing 11,000 area women.
